


Blink

by usuallyproperlyhydrated



Category: Jane the Virgin (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-27
Updated: 2016-10-27
Packaged: 2018-08-27 07:33:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8392756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/usuallyproperlyhydrated/pseuds/usuallyproperlyhydrated
Summary: Jane is the only one who figures out that Petra is Anezka and Anezka is Petra. A conversation of sorts ensues.





	

Jane isn’t sure exactly what made her suspicious of Petra’s behavior. Maybe it’s the fact that she’s apparently sleeping with Scott Vests, which is absolutely disgusting. Petra’s made some terrible romantic and sexual decisions before, but this one takes the cake.  Maybe it’s that she hasn’t been attending therapy or going to Mommy and Me sessions with Jane. Maybe it’s that she hasn’t been a part of any kind of scheme since Jane started being able to hang around the Marbella again. Maybe it’s that she’s completely disinterested in talking to Jane about anything that’s going on in her life.

So what if she and Petra aren’t the best of friends? Jane isn’t even sure that they’re friends at all, truth be told. But Petra’s been getting better at talking about things. She’s been getting softer. At least for Petra. And now all of that progress has flown out the window.

These inconsistencies niggle at Jane for a week until she’s hit by the idea that Petra isn’t Petra at all. It comes to Jane when Rogelio tells her about a new storyline for _Tiago_. It’s an old storyline, actually, one that’s been used in pretty much every telenovela from the beginning of time: the evil twin life swap. The evil twin sweeps into the regular twin’s life and takes over by whatever means necessary.

Jane isn’t really sure who’s the evil twin in this scenario. Anezka’s lied and done some terrible things, but she doesn’t have a patch on the awful things Petra’s done.

But Jane has to concede that Petra hasn’t kidnapped or blackmailed anyone for a while now. And she seemed genuinely upset when it turned out that Anezka had lied to Jane. The old Petra wouldn’t have cared.

So Jane’s going to try a little experiment. She waits until Petra-maybe-Anezka is tied up in a Marbella meeting with Rafael and goes to pay Anekza-maybe-Petra a visit.

“Hey.” She knocks on the doorjamb of the room where Anezka-maybe-Petra’s hospice bed is. “How’s it going?”

Anezka-maybe-Petra glances at Jane with little to no expression in her eyes.

“I’m sorry I haven’t come to visit before, it’s just…” Jane waves a hand. “Things have been crazy.”

She sits in the chair next to the hospice bed and notices it’s kind of…stiff. The chair next to Michael’s bed was almost worn out with use by the time he’d left the hospital. The idea that no one’s been sitting with this woman since being paralyzed weeks ago causes Jane’s heart to tighten. She might as well voice her suspicions now, try to catch whoever this is off guard.

“Petra?” she whispers, her eyes studying the face before her.

Petra-but-maybe-Anezka widens her own eyes, as though she’s trying desperately to convey everything that’s going through her head.

“Oh my god, Petra…” A frown, then Jane leans closer to inspect Petra’s immobile body. “Or are you really Anezka and you’re lying again? It’s hard enough to tell when you’re lying when you’re actually talking—how am I supposed to know when you’re just sitting there blinking at me?”

Petra-or-maybe-Anezka-but-also-maybe-really-Petra blinks then shifts her eyes away. Despite not being able to move her facial features, it’s clear that she’s disheartened by Jane’s response. And if there’s one thing that Jane can’t stand to witness, it’s a loss of hope.

“Okay, look.” The blue eyes swivel back around when Jane speaks, a faint glimmer of something in them. “I’m just trying to figure out who’s who, okay? I’m going to ask you questions and you can answer yes or no. That should work.” Right? Jane mentally crosses her fingers. “One blink for yes, two for no.”

Petra’s eyes or Anezka’s eyes or whoever’s eyes are fixed so steadily on Jane’s face that she has a hard time coming up with questions that only the real Petra would know the answer to. Maybe she should just start simple.

“Your name is Petra?”

Blink blink.

Oh, that’s right.

“You go by Petra; you were born Natalia, I think.”

Blink.

“You used to be married to Rafael Solano, and now you’re divorced?”

Blink.

So far so good. Jane’s having a hard time thinking of personal details about Petra that Anezka wouldn’t know. Petra probably told Anezka everything when she first arrived.

“Your mother pushed my abuela down the stairs?”

Blink.

“You tried to get Raf put in jail on charges of domestic abuse?”

Blink.

“You stole his sperm and inseminated yourself with it?”

Petra holds her eyes open, determined not to blink.

“Oh, come on,” Jane says. “You’re not going to fight me on that, are you? You had the twins! What other proof would I need?”

Still Petra doesn’t blink.

“Okay, let’s take this apart. You inseminated yourself with Rafael’s sperm?”

Blink.

“That you stole.”

Blink blink.

“You weren’t his wife at the time,” Jane argues. “You had no legal right to it. That sperm belonged to Rafael.”

Petra rolls her eyes up at the ceiling.

“If you’re going to be like that, I’ll leave.”

Petra brings her eyes back to Jane and she blinks twice. No. Don’t leave.

“Fine,” Jane says. “I won’t leave. But you need to be honest.”

Blink.

She’s almost certain that this is Petra now. Who else would have tried to twist the truth so it looks favorable on her using only rudimentary blinking Morse code?

“Glad to hear it. So we’ve got one blink for yes and two blinks for no; I guess three blinks can be ‘it’s complicated’ or ‘requires further discussion.’ Does that sound good?”

Blink.

“Good. Okay…” Jane thinks of a good question and smiles. “Did you name your girls after the characters in _Frozen_?”

Petra keeps her eyes open wide until finally she blinks once.

“Ha! I knew you’d seen it! Everyone’s seen _Frozen_. When we get you out of here, I expect a full explanation.”

Blink. And is Jane going crazy or is there a slight crinkle to the edge of her eyes when she does? Could Petra possibly be amused?

“Do you still love Rafael?”

Blink blink blink.

“In a romantic way then.”

Blink blink.

“But you love him in a ‘he’s the dad of your kids and also a good friend’ kind of way?”

Blink.

“Me too.” Speaking of romantic entanglements… A sly look crosses Jane’s face and she can’t resist asking, “Do you love Vests?”

Two very indignant blinks.

“I didn’t think so. In addition to being a horrible person who almost got me fired and then paralyzed her own sister, Anezka’s got horrible taste in men.”

Blink.

A laugh bubbles up from Jane’s chest unexpectedly. She can only imagine the tirade Petra’s going to go on when she’s unparalyzed. If she gets unparalyzed.

“Is this reversible?” Jane gestures at the hospice bed and all the wires and tubes.

Blink blink blink.

“What did she do to you?”

Blink blink blink.

“Yes or no questions only, Jane,” she scolds herself. “Let’s see… Did she give you some kind of medicine to make you like this?”

Blink.

“Was it a one-time thing that’s irreversible?” Jane’s stomach sinks at the thought.

Blink blink.

“So she has to keep giving it to you?”

Blink.

“Petra, that’s perfect! All we have to do is turn Anezka over to the authorities or distract her long enough for the effects to wear off!”

Jane’s already mentally on the phone with Michael, asking him what kind of charges they can press Anezka with. Is identity theft a fraud outside of the internet?

Fear has entered Petra’s eyes again and she’s blinking rapidly and Jane isn’t sure what it means. She takes Petra’s inert hand between her own.

“Are you okay? Is your body hurting?”

Blink blink.

“Are you scared?”

A long, long pause before Petra blinks once.

“It’s okay to be scared, Petra. I know I would be if someone I trusted did this to me.” Jane squeezes Petra’s hand, unsure if Petra is registering the sensation at all. “But I promise, I’ll only be gone for a little while, just while we take care of Anezka.”

Blink blink.

No.

Don’t go.

“Petra, I promise. We’re kind of friends, right?”

Another long pause.

Blink blink blink.

“Yeah, I guess that is complicated,” Jane sighs. “But you trust me, right?”

No hesitation.

Blink.

“You trusted me to be there when you gave birth to the twins and when I recommended that therapist when you had postpartum. Trust me now, okay?”

Blink.

“I’ll be back. We’ll get you out of this.”

Jane gives Petra’s hand one final squeeze and stands up to leave.

“And when I get back, you’re going to tell me the story behind why you named your girls Anna and Elsa.”

Blink.

And this time Jane is positive she’s not imagining the amusement in Petra’s eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> These two will be the death of me. Frickin' Petra, arguing even when she can't talk... Related, if Jane isn't the one who figures this out canonically, I'm going to be very upset.
> 
> (I know, I KNOW I should be working on Thoroughly Modern Jane. It's just I'm overwhelmed by not knowing where to take the plot exactly so if you have ideas, please come spitball them at me!)


End file.
